Romanian Physician Receives French Distinction

Syrian-born Romanian physician of Palestinian origin Raed Arafat has been made a Knight of the French Legion of Honour.

România Internațional, 18.10.2013, 12:32

Raed Arafat was born in 1964 in Damascus, Syria, into a Palestinian family. He came to Romania in the early 80s along with a group of young Arabs and decided to take up medicine. He specialized in anesthesia and intensive care. He settled in Romania and subsequently got Romanian citizenship. He gradually took up political office with the Health Ministry, moving from under-secretary to State Secretary and even Health Minister over a short period of time. Upon his investiture he chose to swore his oath of office with his left hand on the Romanian Constitution, not on the Bible or the Koran.

Raed Arafat is best known for establishing SMURD, the Mobile Emergency Service for Resuscitation and Extrication, which has been operational for more than 20 years and which he committed himself to developing over the years. It was in recognition of his creating an emergency medical service similar to other services in the EU that Raed Arafat received the highest distinction of the French state: Knight in the National Order of the Legion of Honour. Upon bestowing the award, the French Ambassador to Bucharest H.E. Philippe Gustin said it was an absolute certainty Arafat should be distinguished with this award. Self-sacrifice, loyalty, tenacity, audacity, sense of justice, excellence, belief in a better world and passion for a demanding vocation are all qualities making Arafat worthy of such an important award. In turn Arafat said the distinction makes him feel even more responsible, not only towards Romania, but towards Europe as a whole, because SMURD can only develop together with the European emergency system. Ambassador Gustin wished Raed Arafat long life strewn with positive emergencies and accomplishments in the service of life and excellence.